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Saturday, June 13, 2009

Cannibalism in the Yorkshire Dales

I know, how could something so horrific take place in such a lovely place like the Yorkshire Dales?

But thanks to the History channel I was able to find out some interesting stuff...

I was flipping through the channels one night dealing with a cough and those three words stopped my finger mid change. Enduring a couple of stories (Donner group, Bay of Pigs situation) where there was a possiblility for needing to resort to keeping alive.

Finally the Dales story came on and it was in stark contrast to the others. Apparently some farmer (envision the calm, weather worn farmers of James Herriot's books) comes across a bunch of bones in a cave located on his land. Ignoring it for many years until recently a group of Archaelogists excavated and studied the human remains amongst the animal remains. This is what they concluded. A long time ago, (yep my mind isn't a steel trap) the Neolites and M's (don;t recall their name either) were at opposition.

One wanted to roam and hunt, the other had started to progress into... FARMING. This made the hunter gathers MAD. So they would fight. And take the children and babies of the farmers and make a stew. Ugh..

They found this stew theory because of the bone study how it would turn in a pot or cloth that would be surrounded by rocks. Obviously the farmers won out and the hunter gathers had to conform. But it was obviously a grisly fight. And then the horror was buried beneath a beautiful canvas that later, a veterinarian could travel in his rudimentary car minus a heater to visit the farmer's sick animals. Those of which their very lives depended and to some were like family members.

Speaking of fighting and progressing..... I am listening to the book: The Journey of Crazy Horse by Jospeh M. Marshall III. He is a Lakota Indian and to listen to the author, an excellent Indian story teller, is pretty cool. It of course tells of their plight when the white people came across the land and took over their hunting gathering spots. They didn't go down with out a fight either.

As I was mulling over this "fighting" that has existed for centuries I had the op to go see 1 of the 10 remaining B-17's. The new AeroMark hanger at the IF airport was open Sunday for those who wanted to look at the hunk of metal.

Clouds dispersed and the sun was shining so I went with my neighbors to see it. As I walked through the fenced tarmac and came upon the ship with Marilyn Monroe painted on her I got choked up. The sight of all those rivets lined neatly in rows, hearing that they could crank out several of the behemoths each day; the huge rugged propellers that seemed to turn slowly in my mind as a group of boys sat inside praying the hefty load would just get off the ground, bending over to peer up into her and seeing a seat 4 inches from the green missiles; the balance beam they had to awkwardly walk on to move about the plane, the ball turret that not even I could fit into and then the lone gunner space at the back of the plane that could only be reached by scooching down the tail; emotion choked my throat. And it wasn't my asthma, or the fact I didn't look like Marilyn painted on the side of the plane.

I asked one of the neighbor friends why this plane could do that to me? Why something that was meant for war, destruction and the inevitable aftermath could symbolize to me: LOVE? He told me the obvious answer. But then later that day laying in my bed listening to the calming Indian voice say: "Going into battle was not the pursuit of life. Taking life was the defense of life of the people by putting one's own life on the line. Those who saw only the glory of being a "warrior" with out seeing the reality of the commitment it required rode behind those who did. "

Then to paraphrase what came after those words: 'The true warrior knew that the deadliest weapon was not held in their hands, but in their hearts. Boldness of heart and willingness of mind was the difference between winning and losing.'

Good stuff, huh? That explains for me the emotions I felt toward that plane. Moreover those who FLEW that plane and WHY. If you want to get the feel for who that was read The Wild Blue by Stephen Ambrose. And if you want to have a roller coaster crazy cannibalism summer read pick of Life of Pi. Excellent.

And if you want to know the difference between Pi and Phi go to the web site of Gary Meisner at Goldennumber.net. After listening to the unabridged Davincci Code I looked into this number 1.618 and found it to be amazingly in everything on the earth. The ancient Egyptians used it to build pyramids and you were built with the same mathmatics. WOW!